HOUSTON—An Ohio woman whose testimony was credited with helping convict the truck driver in the nation’s deadliest human smuggling attempt was sentenced Monday to the three days of jail time she had already served.

Prosecutors recommended the sentence for Fatima Holloway, who was arrested and jailed shortly after the May 2003 smuggling attempt that resulted in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants.

“I’m truly remorseful for the lives that were lost,” Holloway said before being sentenced. “This has changed me. My heart goes out to those who lost their lives and to their families.”

Daniel Rodriguez, a prosecutor in the case, said Holloway’s sentence was appropriate considering she was a minor participant in the attempt and that her help was critical to the investigation.

Holloway, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and has been out on bond, rode in the cab of the tractor-trailer driven by Tyrone Williams.

As part of a plea agreement, Holloway, 32, testified against Williams, who was sentenced to life in prison in January.

“Fatima Holloway was the only person who gave us an insight as to what was going on in Mr. Williams’ mind,” Rodriguez said.  “Without her testimony, we would not have known what his actions were.”

Holloway’s attorneys said the sentence was fair.

“We’re relieved her ordeal is over,” attorney Stanley Schneider said. “She can go back to her family.”

At Williams’ trials in 2005 and 2006, Holloway tearfully told jurors he ignored her pleas to free the more than 70 immigrants from the trailer as they made their way from South Texas to Houston.

Holloway also testified in the trial of two other smuggling ring members who were convicted.

U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore said Holloway was not an

active participant and questioned whether she was simply a person at the scene of the crime.

Rodriguez said Holloway shares in the blame because she failed on four occasions during the truck ride to tell someone what was happening, which could have prevented the deaths.

Prosecutors had recommended a sentence ranging from no prison time to six months. Guidelines called for a range of three to nearly four years.

After the sentencing, two of the jurors who convicted and sentenced Williams during his retrial congratulated Holloway.

Brent Willie, the jury foreman, said he believed Holloway had been punished enough.

“I think she was an accidental participant,” Willie said.

During testimony in Williams’ trials, Holloway said she could hear the immigrants and that they rocked the trailer back and forth in an attempt to get the driver’s attention.

The trailer’s temperatures quickly skyrocketed. Holloway said Williams didn’t turn on his trailer’s refrigeration unit, which would have lowered the deadly heat.

After discovering the dead bodies strewn inside his truck, Williams abandoned the trailer at a truck stop near Victoria, about 100 miles southwest of Houston.

Williams and Holloway drove off in the truck.

Williams was later arrested at a Houston hospital, while Holloway was arrested in Cleveland.

Craig Washington, Williams’ attorney, tried to discredit Holloway’s testimony by saying she made inconsistent statements.

Williams was convicted in 2005 of 38 counts, but jurors deadlocked on 20 others. An appeals court threw out the conviction, saying it was flawed.

He was retried and convicted on 58 counts of harboring and transporting illegal immigrants.

Holloway said her ex-boyfriend paid her to accompany Williams from Cleveland to a drug deal in Houston.

But she said she was unwittingly caught up in the smuggling attempt when the drug deal was delayed.

Excluding Holloway and Williams, other defendants have received sentences ranging from 14 months time served to 23 years in prison.

Fourteen people were indicted in the case.

Nine were sentenced, two had charges dismissed, one is awaiting sentencing and one is awaiting extradition from Mexico.

One defendant, Norma Gonzalez Sanchez, will be resentenced because an appeals court in April threw out her sentence of time served.